MB Toronto
Morning Brew: police administrative error makes G20 charge vanish, horrific stench in the Scarborough air, Smitherman taunts Ford in schoolyard style, hydro rate hikes on the horizon, Colangelo reflects on Bosh
The sole person arrested and charged under the highly controversial G20 security fence law (under the Public Works Protection Act) showed up in court yesterday -- only to learn that the courts had no record of the charges. Police are suggesting that this was the result of an administrative error. Whether or not they plan to correct this administrative error and still pursue charges isn't yet clear. What is clear to me, however, is that security and policing of the G20 was a monumental challenge fraught with confusion, miscommunication and screw ups.
Residents of Birkdale and Midland Park neighbourhoods in Scarborough have been pinching their noses and forced to abandon their own backyards as a seemingly worsening, putrid odour emanates from a paper milling company in the area. Atlantic Packaging (the company responsible) says it hasn't changed its processes, and is investigating the problem (but has been doing so since March with no solution). Until the problem is found and fixed, residents will have to try to ignore the smell of rotting eggs and sewage while they enjoy that poolside cocktail or backyard barbecue.
Things are getting heated in the municipal politics arena, which, at times, seems more like a school playground. Mayoral candidate Rob Ford is turning down an opportunity to go one-on-one with fellow candidate George Smitherman on a CFRB talk show, and Smitherman isn't shying away from calling it like he sees it. Accusing Ford of "chickening out" and his bid being a "peekaboo candidacy," Smitherman suggests that Ford is afraid to take him on in debate. The Ford team has responded by saying that they will debate, but on their own terms and when the time is right.
Prepare to pay more for electricity. Rate hikes as high as 16% are expected to come into effect by the fall, due to increases in the price of power paid to generating companies and the introduction of the HST. To make matters worse, we're having one heck of a hot summer, which means that power consumption is also up for many customers as they pump the A/C to stay cool. To spout ideologically, perhaps some good may come from this as consumers make more strident efforts to conserve power and spare their wallets.
And while it's far too late to do anything about it, Raptors GM Brian Colangelo is now coming out and saying publicly that Chris Bosh "checked out" before this season's end and that his plans to leave the team and join his pals Wade and James were a long time in the making. The obvious question is: why wasn't he traded earlier, so the team could actually get something of value in his departure?
Photo: "Energized" by CurlyCam, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
Discussion
34 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
It sucks, but expensive power is the only method to encourage conservation that can be proven to work, not that it's the reason for the hike.
Is it?
So Scarborough now has burnt rubber and wet sewage to go along with the stench of despair, mediocrity, and listlessness.
Why didn't the Raptors trade Bosh to get something of value? Well, to the extent Bosh checked out down the stretch, it was *after* the trade deadline. But more importantly, they *did* actually get something of value for him (since they actually traded him to Miami) in the form of a $15M trade exception.
Shut up. Have you ever even been to Scarborough?
Spoken like a true resident of CityPlace. How are those fumes coming off the Gardiner treating you?
The first stage in the anosmics' plan to take over the city seems to be going well!
Oh hi it's me, conveniently sweeping your charter rights out the back door. Try challenging something that doesn't exist except in memory.
That Atlantic Paper plant usually stinks up the RT when it's going by, so I know what it smells like. Now it's stinking up an area larger than that? That's awful.
It probably has to do with the recent heat. Some stinky bacteria must be thriving somewhere in the plant.
spoken from this resident of cityplace: the view is great, the air smells like the air anywhere else in the city. BTW, i'm moving soon and will be selling for over $60k more than i bought for 4 years ago. how's your jealousy treating you?
Facts: Scarborough is a very small, self-contained area. Smaller than North York, Downtown and Etobicoke. Also, the smell from that one factory stops at the borders of Scarborough.
Honestly, I just one a little bit of media fairness.
Today and recently the Star and Globe had a story about Ford and it seemed slanted to me about his actions at a football game where Ford was fired/quit?
So does this mean the Star and the Globe are not endorsing Rob Ford for mayor? They have to go back that far, (2001) to find some "dirt" on Ford?
I'm no cheerleader of Ford, but this smacks of a smear, if I ever saw one.
And the Star and the Globe have disabled comments, why is that? I realize that there are legal concerns but the Star comments are moderated so what's their excuse now?
I don't know what happened either, since I wasn't there and strangely there is no paper trail, just peoples memory from 2001 whether he was fired or quit the football team.
I think voters can read through what is happening here and YOU can vote for who you think should be mayor, because that is what I will be doing.
Daniel .. Toronto
http://bit.ly/bKGa13
I live in Scarborough and while I think generalizing is never a good idea, it's at least understandable in this case. The downtown core has a lot of distinct neighbourhoods with a lot of character (whether that character is good or bad is another issue). East York even has distinct neighbourhoods. Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough....not so much.
So when the media refers to Moss Park or Leslieville, these are distinct neighbourhoods that people can recognize based simply on name.
Does anyone know where Birchcliff is? What about West Hill? Woburn? Hell, I doubt most people living in those neighbourhoods even know what neighbourhood they're in. Nobody identifies these as unique neighbourhoods because they simply aren't that unique. With the exception of a tiny handful of the supposed neighbourhoods, Scarborough neighbourhoods lack any sort of defining character that people can use to differentiate from others.
Hence, those neighbourhoods all tend to become 'Scarborough' with only two distinct neighbourhoods ever getting labelled by the media (Rexdale and the Bluffs).
Today and recently BlogTO had a story about Smitherman and it seemed slanted to me about his campaign volunteer who snapped a photo of Pantalone parking in a bike lane?
So does this mean BlogTO are not endorsing Smitherman for mayor? They have make a big deal of one photo to get some "dirt" on Smitherman?
I'm no cheerleader of Smitherman, but this smacks of a smear, if I ever saw one.
Ryan....Toronto
once Tory enters the race, ford is history.
Er, yeah. I spent the first 20 years of my life there.
You mad.
Regardless of how true what Colangelo said may be, talking about Bosh like that after he left smacks of sour grapes and appears to be a desperate spin job to try to curry back the favour of jaded Raptors fans who've once again watched a star player bolt for greener pastures.
Lol. Ya it's true, but you're self-hatin'!
Re: hydro rate hikes on the horizon...We've spent a fortune to reduce hydro consumption by installing cfl's, led's, window films, and replacing all of our appliances with ones that are more efficient; not to mention turning out lights when leaving a room. With the pending 19% rate hike, our bill will be the same as before we started conserving. We've installed a high efficiency furnace and water heater along with increasing the R value of our insulation to reduce our natural gas consumption, yet our yearly bill stays the same. They've raised the volume rate because we're consuming less. The way I see it, the only benefit for conserving goes supplier of energy and the home improvement stores like Home Depot and Rona. Where's the incentive?
No one except for a bunch of corrput LIEberals would vote for a fat, bald, corrupt, drug-using, mangina-loving assmuncher... and I'm not taking about Ford.
Didn't that happen the last time Ontario Hydro asked us all to conserve because the system was at the risk of blackouts and brownouts? We did as commanded, useage dropped, and Hydro jacked the rates up because they were losing revenue.
This "Green Push" smells like more of the same; get us to conserve and "think green" so they can justify the rate hike they plan to nail us with anyway.
Thanks for the G20 updates. keep them coming.
Meanwhile China is building 500 coal fired power plants.
That E-health lying thief/drug addict Smitherman is finished. Even if he doesn't withdraw, although he should.
It's a shame the "green push" was hijacked by govt and bureaucrats and the lobby.. nothing more then a push to bloat the performance numbers for the finance minister to make it look like the economy actually had some growth; same junk Harper pulled with his action plan, all just contribute to bloating GDP numbers so they can spin that everything is a-ok. It's a shame. It was great to see homeowners take the steps they did to green up there homes, its a shame tho they won't be able to reap the rewards of those investments. 16% is a lot though.. I'm still young and have never seen rates jump like that before, plus all of the energy efficient homes will be using less power off the grid then in the past...yikes.. what a heist for these hydro crooks.
Your post rests on one fundamental assumption: that prices have raised because consumption dropped.
What if prices are raising for another reason? People would be consuming more electricity at this higher price and paying even more.
If your assumption holds true -- why don't you start consuming more electricity so the price goes down for the rest of us?
i live in scarborough and i stopped taking the eastbound bloor/danforth subway/RT when leaving downtown everyday in favor of the sheppard subway/190 simply because of that smell near midland station. that and its just a lower class of people going that route.
Well, it's the quickest way to get to STC to see a movie.
Yes, because Scarborough over all is home to a high caliber of people, right?
It is not an assumption, it is fact. When our consumption of natural gas went down by 30% because of heating upgrades, Endbridge raised our volume rate so that we are paying the same over the billing period. It is standard business practice of natural gas suppliers.
you're right its nothing like queen west. do you smell your own farts too?
I walk past Atlantic Packaging daily to and from Midland Station, and not only does it smell, there's bits and pieces of paper and plastic waste all around their property on Midland. It's disgusting and I've been thinking of complaining to the councilor in the area.
@dandmb50 - The smell situation should be addressed immediately and what are the health concerns for all those living in the area? Where is the Ministry of the Environment?
Daniel .. Toronto
http://bit.ly/bKGa13
Justin happens to be correct.